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It Wouldn’t Be Training Without Some Spewage

Marathon training officially began 3 days ago and there have already been mishaps.

First, The Plan: that color-coded excel spreadsheet that will dictate my life from now until race day.

We are using the same plan we used for Chicago since it seemed to work well (I used a 12 week plan for Boston and that didn’t work so well). We had extracted the spreadsheet off the hard-drive of our old non-functional computer, but we hadn’t actually updated the dates.

We figured Monday, AFTER our first official run was a good a time as any to put things into stone. But Aaron looked visibly confused as he tried to copy and paste it into the current calender. WHY WEREN’T THE DATES LINING UP?

Back when I was determining our training start date, I counted 16 weeks back from marathon day. But the plan so carefully created by Coach Aaron…is actually 18 weeks.

That would make us 2 weeks behind.

I won’t pretend that I wasn’t stressed out by this. I had looked at the plan, titled “18 Week Marathon Plan,” several times over the last month yet somehow managed to not notice that 16 weeks is not 18 weeks. Stupid is as stupid does. Or something.

I know in the long run, 16 weeks is plenty of time to whip our bodies into shape, and we’ve adjusted the long run mileage for the next couple of weeks to prevent ramping up too fast, but this wasn’t how I wanted my glory marathon to start off.

A twitter conversation with Cathryn & Jen and a glass of wine later, I made peace with the situation.

I slept in too late to make it to the high school track, so I did this workout on our treadmill. I was doing ok considering this was the first speed workout I’ve done since August. I was on my last repeat, and I started to get to the point of wanting to give up, which isn’t abnormal. 800’s are my least favorite running related thing. But I talked myself through it and I kept pushing, even when my body started feeling clammy.

With .1 mile left to go, I got the taste of bile in my mouth, and I jumped off the treadmill and ran to the guest bathroom just in time to toss the cookies (I was also extremely grateful that this happened in my home instead of in front of a bunch of high schoolers).

I’m not a stranger to nausea during a tough workout, but this is the first time that I’ve actually made myself sick.

On one hand, I’m kind of proud. I didn’t give up until it became physically necessary to do so which (I feel) shows progress in mental toughness (and I admit that after the puking incident, I marched right back and finished that last .1 mile at the same speed I’d been going… which seemed totally reasonable at the time but actually probably means that I’m disordered). Plus, when people complain about hard workouts, I can now say something along the lines of “BUT DID YOU THROW UP” and *usually* they say no.

Not quite, but almost.

On the other hand, I hate throwing up, which I don’t think is unreasonable. And I know that my traumatized stomach will push me to take the next speed workout more cautiously which isn’t what I want.

So, that’s my week of running in a nutshell. On the plus side, I haven’t broken anything yet.

And I know half of you already have seen this picture on his blog, but Aaron, Giuseppe, and I got to hang out with Fifty States Dan and two of his friends this past weekend. Dan ran his New Mexico race in Shiprock, and we were able meet up for some beers afterwads on Saturday night. I’m always amazed at how I can meet internet friends for the first time and not feel like we’re all awkward strangers.

L-R Aaron, Ryan, Dan, Tom, Me (should be noted that this is the first time in like 5 years that Aaron has been beardless)

I think we probably kept them up well past their bedtimes considering Dan had a very early flight home the next morning, but there was too much local beer to introduce and too many musicals to discuss. We’re holding some fancy Rebel Donuts and a nice man named Tom hostage in order to make sure Dan and Ryan (and Dan’s wife Stephanie, who sounds just as awesome) come back.

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21 thoughts on “It Wouldn’t Be Training Without Some Spewage”

Either I don’t push myself hard enough or I’ve got a super tough system because I’ve never physically been ill from working out. I get a little nauseous sometimes after a long run/marathon but I hope I never loose my cookies! ; ) Good luck with your training! I’m excited to follow your journey!!

I think more than anything, my body wasn’t physically ready to be hitting the 800 paces that I wanted it to. I probably would have been fine if I had just been more reasonable with my expectations the first week back! I don’t recommend throwing up to anyone because it does not feel great!

1.) Puking is gross, and while I have been close to throwing up during workouts and had that weird metallic taste, I have never had to spew. So…. bravo?
2.) 16 weeks is totally enough time.
3.) I totally misread your link as ‘Fifty Shades Dan’, and was a little taken aback.
4.) There was absolutely something else I was going to say, but it’s gone.

1) It is gross and I don’t recommend it.
2) I didn’t read 50 Shades, but I know enough about it to feel sufficiently awkward right now. I’m *fairly* certain things didn’t get that friendly last weekend.
3) I can see why all thoughts were eradicated from your brain because I am now experiencing the same thing.

My parents are going to England/France next September (2015) and I fully plan on being a stowaway. Medoc?

I was tempted by Medoc this year but it wasn’t realistic. My parents are strangely also thinking of France next year (though August), but I would definitely be up for painstakingly planning a weekend getaway to ‘run’ and eat cheese with you. Oh, and drink.

Re: 50 Shades. I bought a copy in the supermarket with my friend before my first ever marathon. We sat in twin beds taking turns to read a chapter to each other seductively. We made it to chapter 4 before we hurt from laughing.

I live in constant fear of throwing up mid- or post-race. It hasn’t happened yet, and precisely because of that it’s a nagging fear. If it can happen once, then it’ll happen again, and though I do believe in “leaving it all on the field,” I really, REALLY don’t want to contemplate the chain reaction of Charlie Horses I’ll get if I hurl post-marathon.

But I don’t think there’s a better way to haze yourself into marathon training. After all, BARF stands for the Badass Association for Running Far. It’s only fitting.

I think part of the problem now is knowing that next time, I’ll be more apt to quit instead of pushing myself because of that fear. And um…I’m completely ok not using BARF as an acronym for anything. I have decided it’s my least favorite of all the puking/throwing up synonyms.

So glad we managed to Twitter you back to tranquility. 16 weeks is MORE than enough time, I managed my (one and only marathon) on 16 weeks. You’ve got this. Besides, NorCal is much more forgiving with the weather so that will be on your side.

UGH to the up-chuck. You poor thing. I’ve never been sick although I nearly did when I took too many M&Ms at the first aid station on my first ever trail race 🙂

Thank you for the encouragement! More than I anything,I just felt silly for not noticing that the plan was 18 weeks until we already started training. And I’m hoping for a nice cool race after training all summer here!

You are so hardcore (and slightly deranged? haha) for throwing up and then going back to finish your workout. Like I said on Twitter, I’ve definitely felt pukey during races and at the end of hard intervals, but never remotely close to actually throwing up so… good job?! Hope the rest of marathon training contains less spewage!

I was trying to respond to comments today during lunch which turns out was a very bad idea because I grossed myself out.

And happy to report that the beard is back to it’s perfect length, so I can lay off Aaron until next year around this time. As much fun as it was having Pornstache Lavender volunteer with me at a 5-K for 3rd/4th grade girls.